We were ready for the race this week.  We had 4 out of 5 crew on the boat when we left the dock at RCYC.  Even picked up Bruce from Swale before the prep warning.  I am telling you, we were on the right track.

OK, we were on the right track until they announced the course.  Downwind start?  With 16 boats…a little hairy.  We went against the grain and started on a Port Tack and Gybed soon after the mark…not exactly what you would call GENIUS tactics.  We didn’t hit a boat, and we actually got out pretty good.  Read more…

The Skipper

Saturday night we headed up to RCYC for the usual race…but this was not a usual race.  First of all, we were not one of the two boats racing…there were actually a hand full of IC24′s, some J22′s,  and a couple of Melges 24′s…Woooohoooooo….AND we had a race committe boat.  I was just shocked!!!

At the very least, we had a great crew on the boat.  Dwight on the foredeck, Jamie and Mandy trimming the Jib, Sheryl on spinnaker duty, with me at the helm and Joanne was there for emotional support.   We did OK with the start sequence and only were off by seconds.  Sure beats being off by minutes like we were last Wednesday.

Did our laps and ended the race trying to gybe the boat at the finish and hanging the spinnaker around the forestay…That was ugly…and everyone made sure to come by and make a comment.  THANKS!

We went back to drop Mandy off at the marina, and ended up staying there all night finishing up the beer we had brought.  YEAH, I might have spent the night on the boat…

Dwight has the pics!  Needless to say, I might have been enjoying myself a bit too much.  Photo Album

The Skipper

Anyone that has spent some time with me knows how much I hate being late…well, last night I was late to the start line.  I am not talking a few seconds, I am talking about what seemed like an hour!  Ok, so it was only like 5  minutes, but that is a lot of time in sailing.   Worst than that, the race committee started the race a couple of minutes early.  BAH!  I was not a very happy camper…Sherrill, Dwight, and I were to pick up Bruce from Swale before the race…well that didn’t happen.  Not that I really feel bad for him…he knows why! Read more…

The Skipper

Last night was a blast…when people say that the best days of owning a boat are “The Day You Buy It & The Day You Sell It”, THEY ARE SMOKING CRACK. We had a FULL boat, I think there was Eight total.  What a blast…we got to the race course just in time to see that there was only one other boat racing with us…Fine, we were going to make the best of it.   We got to the start a couple of minutes late…what is new?  But we got around the bouyes and finished the race half a leg early.  Race over, we came in second out of two boats…not the best race showing.  Who cares! Read more…

The Skipper

Dwight was kind enough to help me put Speedster back in her stall…we had wind all the way to Terry Point, we were heading to RCYC when all presence of wind disappeared…SOB I had to get the motor out and motor back to the club.  Mandy was waiting for us to go back out on the water, but since there was no wind, she jumped in the pool.

Wouldn’t you know it, after we got her on the trailer, the lake filled with wind…SOB!

The Skipper

We had our last race of DRW last night. The same triangle course that we’ve had in the past nights.  EXCEPT it was a windward start…actually it was a reach.  We were right on the start.  Had to change the side that we were going to launch the chute and that is when it went a little afoul.  I am not ratting anyone out, but the Spinnaker came out of the cabin sideways.  Someone had the halyard on the wrong end of the Spinnaker…I hope no one got a picture of that.  I know many of the boats saw it, as they reminded me of it during the after party. Read more…

The Skipper

We left the boat at RCYC when the race got canceled. So today we had to take it back to Chandler’s for the race. As soon as I got the motor up and running, Peter found some wind and we started hauling down. Just my luck. Read more…

The Skipper